Gundam Side Story I: Denei no Blue

GUNDAM SIDE STORY I: DENEI NO BLUE
Sega Saturn
Bandai
Available Now
¥5800

Copyright © Sotsu Agency/Sunrise

— by Keith Rhee

Generally credited for changing the trend towards more realism in the giant robot genre, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM would seem to be the prime candidate for a mecha simulation. But while it served as the inspiration for mecha combat simulators such as BATTLETECH and MECHWARRIOR, GUNDAM itself went the way of side-scrolling shooters and strategy games, forcing Gundam fans looking for the nitty-gritty feel of actual combat to make do with MECHWARRIOR 2. While MECHWARRIOR 2's game engine is solid, the uninspired designs don't hold a candle to the great, sleek looking designs featured in GUNDAM (at one point FASA tried to incorporate several Gundam mecha designs into BATTLETECH before it got slapped with copyright infringement).

When the Playstation arrived with its astonishing polygon-crunching ability, Bandai finally released a Gundam game with an in-the-cockpit view. The game held promise, but the end result was rather disappointing; the visuals were average, the controls hard to get used to, and the game play in general too difficult and overall boring.

Zakus make up most of the Jion mobile suit forces.

Never mind the Zaku — is that a hovertank I see?

With GUNDAM GAIDEN 1 – DENEI NO BLUE (English title: GUNDAM SIDE STORY 1 – THE BLUE DESTINY), it seems Bandai has learned from its past efforts. While the Playstation game remained faithful to the classic TV series, the visual style in Gaiden leans heavily towards the more popular, modernized Gundam designs featured in recent OVAs. The Saturn still can't handle polygons as well as the Playstation, despite recent improvements to its graphic libraries, so there's a considerable amount of pop-up, and the mobile suits are for the most part flat-shaded. But for some reason the flat-shading lends the mechs a sharper look (much like TEKKEN 2, which also used flat-shading for most of its characters).

More important is the game play. GAIDEN doesn't try to follow an existing story (hence its name, "Side Story"), but features a separate story line about 3 GMs being put in combat situations to collect combat data. For the most part this involves the typical "search and destroy" formula, but because it doesn't try to follow the original series to a T, GAIDEN has more freedom in its mission designs, and the game play is on the whole more interesting than its Playstation counterpart. As the battles take place on ground, keeping tabs on the situation isn't as difficult (some of the missions in the Playstation game took place in space, making it tough to draw a bead on the enemy unit shooting at you). Even with GAIDEN, getting used to the controls takes a while, but VIRTUAL ON veterans will note the similar control pad configuration and should find themselves right at home.

It's white, it's got long arms, and it's shooting at us!

A sudden attack of the blues...

So how does it stack up compared to MECHWARRIOR 2? Not too bad, actually. There isn't as much variety in weapons (the GM has a standard armament of vulcans, rifle, and a beam saber), and players will note that a good chunk of the enemy forces are comprised of Zakus. For what it's worth, this adheres closely to the situation in the actual series, where Zakus are the mainstay of the Jion forces, though a bit more variety would've been nicer. But for the most part, the look and feel of Gundam combat has been translated quite well. Gundam fans can finally enjoy what is perhaps the first worthy - and enjoyable - Gundam simulation.

And Bandai hasn't been resting on its laurels; after listening to feedback and suggestions, it released the second installment to the GAIDEN series a mere few months after DENEI NO BLUE, with many improvements. (There will be three parts in total). Some of the improvements include more variety in the missions and mecha opponents, an improved radar screen, and added support for the VIRTUAL ON dual-stick! A review of the second installment will follow next issue.

Rating: ***1/2 stars